A Merry Christmas Message

Our world is broken. We look within ourselves and perceive boredom, poverty, depression, and worry. We look outside ourselves and witness wars, rumours of wars, suffering, violence, and persecution.

Thus, man searching for a saviour almost anywhere and everywhere he can. We are looking for someone to rescue us from our economic tribulations, moral decay, and impending societal collapse.

For the most part, it seems that man believes this saviour will come from the political arena. That, after all, is where we look for deliverance most often. “If only our politicians were good, then my life would be fixed. At the very least, my life would certainly be better.” That phrase, or some variation of it, is a complaint we often hear from ourselves, friends, and neighbours.

It is also a phrase that the ancients uttered. The Israelites “refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles’” (1 Sam 8:19–20). The Romans rushed to Caesar, the French venerated Napoleon, and even in this modern day, the Americans follow Trump and the Argentinians follow Milei.  

The point is that if we’re all waiting for a saviour to come from the political arena, we’re going to be waiting a long time. Countless millions — billions — of men before us put their faith in statesmen and scholars, and all of them were inevitably left wanting. The truth is that political leaders are usually bad, but even if a few are exceptional like David or Washington, their reigns only last a few years before they are summoned to the grave.

This perpetual failure to find a successful political saviour has led many to come to the sad conclusion that no one is coming to save us. Instead, they believe that the only one who can save us is ourselves.

The problem with this idea is that man needs salvation from man. We do not need to be delivered from creation, but from our fallen natures. So, if we are unable to save ourselves from “this body that is subject to death” (Rom 7:24), who can?

The answer arrived in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. The solution is not a philosophy, discipline, enlightenment, or academic theory. Instead, the solution is a man. His name is Jesus, and He didn’t come to our world dressed in the armour of a political conqueror or draped in the robes of a spoiled bureaucrat, but wrapped in the swaddling clothes of a baby born to an impoverished mother and father.

At this apex of human history, man did not go to meet God; God came to meet man. We could not cross the infinite bridge to be with our Lord in Heaven, so our Lord crossed the infinite bridge to be with us on Earth. Today is the day that we celebrate His incarnation, for today is the day that our ultimate hope of salvation came true.

We too often say that no one is coming to save us. The truth is that someone already has come to do exactly that. Do not believe the lie that mankind is abandoned to a hopeless fate, for the star of Bethlehem triumphantly shines. Christ has not only come, but He is coming again, and if we are this excited to celebrate His first coming, how much more exciting must our celebration of His second coming be? Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoyed the article, please consider supporting Tanner Hnidey's work here! https://www.tannerhnidey.com/support